Dollieh Sanctuary

So, this morning I get an email from my parents, who spend the summer in the cool environs of Washington state with my retired Aunt, while I die of heat here in Phoenix. Anyway, over the weekend they went to yard sales. I have a standing "order" with them for any small trims, snaps, sewing related things and potentially any nice doll type props. But dolls, nope, never ask for those. I mean, I'm into BJDs which are not likely to show up at yard sales in a retirement community (or anywhere else).

Anyway, back to that email. It says that my Mom found a doll for me! It's 6-7" tall and has no underwear.

Yes, that would be the sum and total of the details. Don't' know if it's plastic, porcelain or poop. Given as my mother's taste in dolls runs towards the babydoll/Gotz type - which I am indifferent to at the best of times - I'm kinda scared. And I wont' find out what it is for several more weeks until they come home O.O;

So - come on and share your hobby related terrifying statements made by a friend or relative that prove they have no idea exactly what it is you do!

"I have a present for you", which I get frequently from one of my best friends. Although she knows what I do and tries to find me derpy-looking dollar store dolls on purpose. XDD But then, I DID just buy her a unicorn diary... so I guess we do it to each other. XD

I usually have more of a problem with books. That's how I have three different copies (all different versions, crazily enough) of Little Women, even though that's totally not my thing.

The only present I ever got that wasn't off the mark in one way or another was a Joey McIntyre (insert cute boy with goofy hair here) badge. I won't ever do a gift exchange or secret Santa for me because I've always gotten something impossibly sh*tty in the past. The dolls did okay with theirs.

Sad thing is I always seem to know what to get people I know :/

"We were expecting Sid from Toy Story."

My relatives in Minnesota weren't sure what to expect when I was coming up there for a wedding because my mom gave them descriptions of how you could pull off the dolls' head/arms/legs for easier dressing to describe my hobby.

I have two grandmothers. One grandmother collects BJDs, watches anime, remembers the names of all my old MLPs, and has a decent understanding of the lolita and aristocrat fashion.
My other grandmother has somewhat less of an understanding with me... Its been getting better in recent years, but ever since I left the 'princess and Barbies' phase she's been kind of at a loss what to do with me. Sparing the 'clown wig vest' incident (go ahead and ask about that one, its lovely), most of her griping recently has been with my dolls. They're overpriced, they're creepy, they don't look like real people, they look like sex dolls, they're made for perverts, etc. So it kinda surprised me when she decided that she was going to make Dollfie Dream Dynamite clothes to finance her trip to Scotland... My fault really, I had shown her a site of clothing from Yahoo Japan that was going for a LOT of money, and she assumed thats what the standard prices were. Her enthusiasm has since died down, unfortunate because it would have been very funny to see her try to fit things to my DDDy...

"People are mailing you heads in the mail? heads of WHAT exactly?" People that work with me know I have a thing for taxidermy too!

now I kind of want to see what happens when school starts and I tell the entire school that I collect "realistic" articulated dolls that's "too expensive" and "pony toys for little girls". I just hope that my friends don't start giving me scary fakie ponies and derpy dollar store dolls.

@SillyLilPuppet- Your grandma is awsome. How cool it would be to have a relative who understands my obsession of weird things? XD

I had a similar situation recently. The relatives were going through my Grandma's things after she passed away and told me that they had found a doll's head. My mom asked if I was interested and my usual uninterested response is "Eh, maybe..."
This of course was my mistake because my mom took it as "Sure, why not?" so a few days later she hands me an old oval box about the size of an msd and tells me it's the doll head.
I open the lid slowly, not sure about what I'm going to find and the contents turn out to be completely terrifying. It's a reeeeally old porcelain doll head that once had eyes and realistic eyebrows. It also seems to have very real teeth and it's just overall horrible and scary. I couldn't throw it back at her like I wanted and so now it sits in the deep darkness of my closet.
My mom knows better really but the rest of my family just assumes I like all dolls.

@BlackDragon- That sounds....pretty terrifying........just because one likes having BJDs doesn't gurantee that one likes Chucky....

My aunt was a BJD collector long before I was, and my mother has some beautiful rare dolls, so the doll thing comes as no surprise to my family. Fortunately, my family is full of odd, very specific hobbies, so when we want something hobby-related, we will put very very specific details on our holiday wishlists. We'll include the name, SKU or ISBN code, where to get it, etc. I'm actually very lucky that I grew up with parents with interesting interests, so they really understand how it works. My father collected and worked on a specific scale of miniature trains for decades, so he's gotten his fair share of "here, this has a train, you'll love it!" gifts.